Catering easy meal ideas?

badjak

badjak

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I've been asked to do catering for 3 times dinner for about 20 people. All adults.
I got most of it sorted in my head, but still struggling a bit with day 1.
There are some limitations though.
- it needs to be made on the spot as there won't be any fridge or freezer space left
- no oven, no electrics
- there is not much in the form of convenience products available

Day 2 is full Indonesian and is the main event. Lot of dishes, fairly meat centric & obviously rice based
Day 3 is snack/finger food, think hummous, tzatziki, spring rolls, salads, paté, whatever, got a whole list ready

So day 1 needs to be fairly easy, not too much meat, no braai like I first thought of.
I don't want to do spaghetti bolognese or something like that as thats considered very low class here.
It gotta be different from day 2 and 3
I was thinking of chicken tikka masala, dal & a big salad, but open to more ideas
 
Thanks
I've been considering some of those.
I'm keeping coq au vin in mind.
Cassoulet unfortunately is a no go, even though I really like it. Bit difficult to explain, but it's just something that won't work.
Jerk chicken is also a good one, but the coq ai vin is really grabbing my attention and I'm banging my head as it is something I make often.
Would you suggest pasta (fettucini if I can find it) potatoes or rice to go with it?
 
Mashed potatoes, gratin or roast potatoes work well with Coq au vin, at least this is how we serve it in Germany.
Considering it's summer I wouldn't recommend gratin but some don't have a problem with being against the rules or you make something similar called Pommes Anna
If you prefer pasta, I would serve the pasta mixed with veggies, mushrooms and in a light cream sauce, but I'm not a big fan of pasta and demiglace.
TBH, it's hard for me to come up with different sides besides of potatoes because I'm so used to it.

Polenta cakes work also pretty good with brown sauces.
 
I’m with PabloLerntKochen on the Coq au Vin.
CDs preferred version with white wine looks nicer and is a slightly different take.

For me it’s definitely potatoes, preferably small potatoes like new potatoes (which people always seem to view well) part boiled crushed a roasted with garlic and sea salt. They reheat well because they also taste good soft. But if that presents practical difficulties then hot buttered new potatoes work very well too.
 
you can do full Indian food. Cook it the day before, it will benefit from a day (the spices tend to improve the flavour even more). do your chicken masala, make a dal, then make potato&tomato with coconut, or Aloo saag (potatoes with spinach) or a vegetable curry (however you like it) and add some raita (yoghurt with herbs) or a tomato&onion salad with mint (kachumbar) or a cucumber salad with fresh coconut and peanuts... the world's your oyster.
 
Thanks all.
It's winter here, by the way.
No oven, so roast potatoes or au gratin are more or less out.

Fish is not really an option. We only got local boring tilapia, all else is extremely expensive. Fish curry would be possible though.

The Indian idea is still in the back of my mind, but it gotta be quite different from the Indonesian meal as thats the showcase meal and contains a fair amount of stew/curry dishes.

Good ideas though as my mind got stuck on something and I needed to unstuck it :wink:
 
So what's the plan? If you can't heat up anything, I'm assuming you're gonna bring all the stuff hot from home in a thermo container?
Some more basic questions... is pork allowed, do they like cheese, whats your budget and do they prefer healthy food over comfort food?
 
Last edited:
PabloLerntKochen said:
Some more basic questions... is pork allowed, do they like cheese, whats your budget and do they prefer healthy food over comfort food?
Click to expand...
Yep, no issues with pork. Basically no dietary issues except apparently 1 person mentioned "nothing slimy" :)
Budget is pretty open. The constraints are more on my side on logistics, space, skills etc. No shops close by and availability of produce is pretty much hit & miss.

Food can be anything, I look at it as more or less healthy comfort food.

As I mentioned,
Day 2 is full on Indonesian, meaning a fair amount of different dishes. 1-2 each chicken, beef, pork, eggs. Several veg dishes, cooked & raw, roedjak, pickles (atjar), prawn crackers, several types of sambal. And Rice.
Some dishes will be coconut based, others not.

Back to day 1:
I'll still be partly busy with day 2, hence the idea to keep it simple but nice.
Meat or chicken, but with a lot of veges thrown in
 
karadekoolaid said:
you can do full Indian food. Cook it the day before, it will benefit from a day (the spices tend to improve the flavour even more). do your chicken masala, make a dal, then make potato&tomato with coconut, or Aloo saag (potatoes with spinach) or a vegetable curry (however you like it) and add some raita (yoghurt with herbs) or a tomato&onion salad with mint (kachumbar) or a cucumber salad with fresh coconut and peanuts... the world's your oyster.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one. Samosas? With rhaita and tamarind.
Tika or butter chicken??


Russ
 
Coq au vin is a good suggestion. It can be made ahead if necessary and is improved by re-heating (though it sounds like you can't keep it overnight due to fridge space). I'd go mashed potatoes or boiled potatoes rather than rice as you have rice on day 2.
 
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